Students raise over $3,000 for Waupaca senior
By Angie Landsverk
When Waupaca Middle School held its Penny War this month, the event raised funds for Waupaca High School senior Taylor Vaughn.
Vaughn is undergoing treatment for her recent diagnosis of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
“We always do a Penny War every year and give to a charity. We decided to give to the family,” said René Jungers, who is the gifted and talent teacher at the middle school.
Students know who Vaughn is because her mother, Shelley, works in the lunch room at the middle school.
The Penny War competition took place among the homerooms during the week of April 11.
The event included two challenges to boost the fundraising effort.
One of them was the class which raised the most money got to duct tape Principal Ben Rayome to a wall in the school’s commons.
Jungers’ homeroom class of 11 eighth graders met that challenge by raising $402.89.
Noting most homerooms have 20 or more students in their rooms, she said her students met the challenge.
During lunch hour on Wednesday, April 20, students in Jungers’ homeroom worked to tape Rayome to a wall.
They used black tape to do so and then ended by placing the initials “TVS” on him with red tape to stand for “Taylor Vaughn Strong.”
Rayome spent about an hour taped to the wall to allow all the middle school students to see him there.
The second challenge, which went before the students, was if the middle school raised more than $1,700, he agreed to camp overnight on the middle school roof.
The school raised more than $3,000, which means Rayome planned to camp in a tent on the roof sometime during the week of April 25, depending on the weather forecast.
“There’s a first time for everything,” Rayome said as he hung from the wall.
That is because this was the first time he was duct taped to a wall.
Rayome said agreeing to do so, as well as camping on the roof, were well worth his time.
“I’m very proud of all of our kids for raising that much money,” he said.